Normally a firestopping sleeve includes an outer shell positionable inside an aperture in a construction wall, where the outer shell has an opening extending longitudinally therethrough that allows cables to go through and seal around the cables. The firestopping sleeve has been discussed in some patents. However, existing firestopping appliances often have the drawbacks of leaking air or smoke around the cables, for which a manual adjustment is required during installation to achieve a complete sealing. Other existing firestopping appliances use foams at each end of the sleeve, however, extending a cable through both ends of the sleeve can require skills and manual adjustment by human, adding labor and time to the installation. Other existing appliances use templates having a fixed number of holes around the cable, which also have similar drawbacks. Some of these existing systems are discussed in more detail below.
The U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2008/0128998 “Leadthrough and a sealing element for the leadthrough” discloses a sleeve with a tubular body and a secure element at the end of the tubular body. However, the secure element is rigid, and it cannot properly seal air tightly around the cables.
The U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,523,590 and 7,373,761, both to Stahl, disclose an improved firestopping sleeve insert that includes two moveable pads that are configured to allow cables to extend therebetween and seal around the cables by moving close together. Specifically, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,590 discloses a moving mechanism that is configured to move the two moveable pads inwardly together; and the U.S. Pat. No. 7,373,761 discloses using a set of springs between each moveable pad and the outer shell of the sleeve to push the pads inwardly together. These teachings, however, either require manual adjusting of the position of the moveable pads after the cables are installed, or increase the cost of the sleeve in the moving mechanism.
The U.S. Pat. No. 8,887,458 to Lopes discloses a self-adjusting firestopping sleeve with flexibly resilient pads positioned opposing to each other and seal the cables extending there between. However, the resilient pads may not easily conform to various types of cables, shapes, dimensions and arrangements.
This document describes a system that may address at least some of the issues described above and/or other issues.